Background: Recruitment and retention of rural physicians is vital for rural health care. A key deterrent to rural practice has been identified as professional isolation and access to continuing medical education/continuing professional development (CME/CPD). Aims: The purpose of this article is to review and synthesize key themes from the literature related to CME/CPD and rural physicians to facilitate CME/CPD planning. Methods: A search of the peer-reviewed English language literature and a review of relevant grey literature (e.g., reports, conference proceedings) was conducted. Results: There is robust evidence demonstrating that the CME/CPD needs of rural physicians are unique. Promising practices in regional CME/CPD outreach and advanced procedural skills training and other up-skilling areas have been reported. Distance learning initiatives have been particularly helpful in increasing access to CME/CPD. The quality of evidence supporting the overall effect of these different strategies on recruitment and retention is variable. Conclusion: Supporting the professional careers of rural physicians requires the provision of integrated educational programs that focus on specific information and skills. Future research should examine the linkage between enhanced CME/CPD access and its effect on factors related to retention of physicians in rural communities. A proposed framework is described to aid in developing CME/CPD for rural practitioners.

Background: The Rourke Baby Record (RBR) -http://www.rourkebabyrecord.ca -is a freely available evidence-based structured form for child health surveillance from zero to five years. Family physicians/general practitioners (FP/GPs) doing office based well-baby care in three Ontario Canada cities (London, Ottawa, and Toronto) were randomly sampled to study the prevalence and utility of the RBR and documentation of well-baby visits.

In hospitals diseases stay and people come and go; in general practice people stay and diseases come and go. Iona Heath 1T he Rourke Baby Record (RBR): why and how has this practice tool survived and maintained its clinical relevance and academic rigour? In this article we share lessons learned in knowledge mobilization (KM) and clinical uptake (Box 1).In contrast to single-issue or single-disease guidelines, the RBR is deeply rooted in the broad continuity-of-care realities of general or family practice, as expressed by the 4 principles of family medicine. 2 The RBR provides effective, efficient, evidence-based preventive care guidance for infants and children from birth to 5 years of age within domains such as growth, nutrition, development, injury prevention, and physical assessment. It captures relevant topics, is readily accessible, partners FP content experts with non-FP-specialist content experts, and places primary care as a focus of KM to help FPs and other health care providers (HCPs) keep current with the overwhelming amount of evolving relevant research findings.

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Dans les hôpitaux, les maladies restent et les gens vont et viennent; en pratique générale, les gens restent et les maladies vont et viennent.